Before the newcomer appeared, his voice arrived, accompanied by a sharp intent that surged toward their backs.
Xu Ziqing and Yun Lie withdrew their respective techniques and divine abilities, arranged defensive arts around themselves, and turned to face the stranger warily.
In the space of an instant, he had already arrived.
Xu Ziqing examined him discreetly. Sword qi swept around the newcomer without the slightest concealment, and his sharp presence seemed capable of piercing the clouds and shaking heaven and earth.
His sword intent was bitterly cold. In that respect, he bore a certain resemblance to Xu Ziqing’s senior brother.
Could it be that all sword cultivators who comprehend sword intent are like this? Xu Ziqing wondered.
Yet the very next moment, he realized that was not so.
The man flicked a finger, releasing an invisible force with a whistle. It brought the sensation of frosty skies and snow-covered earth. His sword intent did not remain invisible: after emerging, it gradually assumed an icy white appearance.
In the blink of an eye, several two-horned savage beasts below froze solid, becoming lifelike ice sculptures. Then, with a crisp crack, they exploded into piles of icy fragments.
The spectacle was both cold and beautiful, possessing a strange, indescribable beauty of frost and slaughter!
Xu Ziqing immediately understood that although this man’s sword intent was intensely cold, it was fundamentally unlike his senior brother’s chilling murderous intent.
Yun Lie’s killing intent was a kind of overwhelming presence that struck fear into the deepest reaches of the heart, freezing the souls of living things from within. Slaughter was primary; coldness was secondary.
The newcomer’s sword intent, however, came from cultivating the sword of ice and snow. It manifested directly in the outside world and had little to do with its victim’s inner state. Coldness was primary, and killing followed from the extremity of the cold.
Yun Lie and the newcomer stood facing one another, sword intent rising beneath their feet and their imposing auras confronting each other. One wore white and the other black, giving the scene the unmistakable air of a contest.
Xu Ziqing knew that his senior brother was interested in this man, or more precisely, in the man’s sword intent.
The black-clad young man spoke coldly. ‘You’ve already consumed a great deal of true essence. I won’t compete with you using divine abilities. We’ll compare sword intent alone. Whoever kills more savage beasts with sword intent wins. What do you say?’
Although activating sword intent required some true essence, the consumption was comparatively small. That was precisely why sword intent was so feared: even when a sword cultivator had only a tenth of his true essence remaining, he could still deploy sword intent and kill his enemies easily.
Yun Lie nodded faintly without changing expression. ‘Agreed.’ Then he glanced toward the person beside him. ‘Ziqing, move farther away and protect your heart meridians.’
Xu Ziqing understood the danger at once and nodded. ‘Yes, Senior Brother.’
Then he shifted his body and retreated over a hundred zhang.
Nor was Xu Ziqing the only one. The other cultivators around Yun Lie and the black-clad man scattered in every direction, perceptive enough to understand the danger. Though their own cultivation was respectable, they did not even dare remain to watch two powerful sword cultivators compete using sword intent.
Otherwise, they might become innocent bystanders caught in the clash and lose their lives!
The battlefield cleared. Only the countless savage beasts below continued jostling about. They cared nothing for promises and calculations made between cultivators, but kept releasing blood poison in their attempts to drag the hateful airborne humans down and kill them.
Yun Lie and the black-clad youth both moved, taking positions to the east and west in a blink.
Then a deafening sound erupted.
Boom!
Two exceptionally sharp, invisible forms of sword intent descended at once. A storm of murderous intent and icy snow erupted, carrying tremendous, irresistible will through the air!
Countless savage beasts froze instantaneously, their bodies becoming rigid.
To the east, killing intent swept over the beasts, gathering a thin layer of frost upon their bodies. Then some unseen force seemed to twist them apart, and they burst open, spilling bright, thick blood.
It was the terrible beauty of a will that slaughtered all things, a sight capable of captivating and overwhelming the mind.
To the west, the world turned to ice and snow. Ferocious killing intent gathered into countless icicles that became innumerable blades and darted everywhere. The savage beasts seemed covered in deep snow, their bodies turning white; when the blades struck them, not a drop of blood flowed.
Everything looked carved of ice and jade, until the entire world seemed made of frost and snow.
The two kinds of sword intent collided and repelled each other, engulfing the savage beasts within a radius of one li in an extraordinary domain of endless killing.
Within that domain, one wave of beasts collapsed after another, yet more kept surging forward. They seemed impossible to kill completely.
‘Xi Lin was right,’ someone suddenly said calmly. ‘He really has reached the third realm of sword intent.’
Xu Ziqing was startled. Someone’s here!
He immediately turned to look and discovered a red cloud about one zhang away.
Several men stood upon it. The speaker had been the silver-clad man at their head.
Xu Ziqing remained guarded but also felt somewhat relieved.
The voice had sounded so close that he had thought someone had approached undetected. Now he realized the speaker was not directly beside him; rather, the man possessed cultivation sufficient to project his voice over a distance.
But why would such an obviously distinguished youth deliberately let him hear those words?
As Xu Ziqing tried to guess the man’s intentions, the young man spoke again. ‘Young friend, what is your relationship to the man fighting on the eastern side?’
Xu Ziqing paused, then answered, ‘He is my senior brother.’
The silver-clad youth smiled. ‘What a coincidence. The man to the west is a good friend of mine. If you don’t mind, young friend, why not come over for a conversation?’
Xu Ziqing considered briefly. ‘Very well. I would be honored.’
Having quickly assessed their cultivation, he had not sensed any of the terrifying pressure associated with Nascent Soul ancestors. These men were considerably stronger than he was, but they were all Golden Core cultivators.
With Rongjin available, Xu Ziqing did not fear them. If they were hostile, being closer would allow Rongjin to act more effectively. Besides, his senior brother was engaged in a duel, so he had to be more calculating than usual, lest he fall into someone’s trap and become a burden to Yun Lie.
While thinking, he moved swiftly and appeared before the silver-clad youth.
A handsome man beside the youth waved his sleeve, dispersing the thin layer of mist around the red cloud and allowing Xu Ziqing to step onto it.
Once there, Xu Ziqing cupped his hands. ‘Greetings, seniors.’
The silver-clad youth smiled. Despite the natural pride evident in his bearing, his words were quite friendly. ‘No need for ceremony. May I ask your name?’
Xu Ziqing remained respectful. ‘This junior is Xu Ziqing. My senior brother and I came here to serve as temporarily attached cultivators.’
The young man did not press further. He merely smiled. ‘Meeting like this is fate. My brother here is obsessed with the sword. It was rare for him to meet your senior brother, and he grew so excited that he rashly challenged him. I hope neither of you will take offense.’
Since the man was so courteous, Xu Ziqing answered with a gentle smile. ‘Senior Brother accepted the challenge, so he must have felt the desire to fight as well. Please don’t concern yourself.’
The silver-clad youth raised his brows slightly and said no more.
Meanwhile, the two sword cultivators moved again.
The black-clad young man named Xi Lin acted first. He raised an arm, and the powerful sword pressure around him suddenly dissipated. The ice and snow below seemed to melt instantly, returning everything to its former appearance.
He formed a sword seal and uttered, ‘Go.’
A faint chill spread outward like wind and covered the ground in a moment.
The savage beasts caught within it abruptly changed their behavior.
Yun Lie also pointed with a finger, extending his sword domain.
The beasts within his domain immediately changed as well.
Almost simultaneously, the savage beasts on both sides began slaughtering one another!
Their eyes turned an even deeper scarlet, glittering with ferocious cruelty. They seemed to view every nearby savage beast as an enemy, spitting poison at each other and attacking with horns, claws, and fangs. Some even tore others apart and devoured them.
Within moments, the stench of blood rising from the ground became several times, even more than ten times, stronger than when the two sword cultivators had been slaughtering the beasts directly!
The golden light in Yun Lie’s eyes grew more concentrated.
In Xi Lin’s eyes, meanwhile, two clusters of white light shone brilliantly.
Both men were activating sword intent. This technique was a derivative ability of its first realm.
Once unleashed, it could throw a target’s mind into confusion and trap it in illusions. The savage beasts not only saw their own kind as human enemies, but apparently witnessed other things within their hallucinations that brought their already cruel and vicious natures fully to the surface.
That was why they fought one another so savagely.
As the beasts killed each other, one side gradually gained the upper hand.
Then something even stranger occurred.
Just as one beast was killed, the beast that had bitten through its throat suddenly suffered an exploding head and collapsed too.
After that, it was as though some mechanism had been triggered: every time one combatant died, its opponent also dropped dead, its head bursting without exception.
This was the second realm of sword intent: shaking the soul and destroying spiritual awareness.
The deeper a sword cultivator’s attainment and the higher his cultivation, the more easily he could shatter an opponent’s sea of consciousness through sword intent. Once that sea was destroyed, the soul within was completely shattered too.
Just like these savage beasts, whose heads exploded and who died on the spot!
Yun Lie and Xi Lin repeatedly displayed techniques from the three realms of sword intent, exchanging attacks without yielding.
At first glance, they appeared evenly matched.
Just then, Xi Lin said, ‘I’ve already shown you all my techniques. Do you have another ability you could let me see?’
He had comprehended three realms of sword intent and had never before encountered a true equal in the Sword Dao. Now he sensed that this white-clad cultivator’s sword pressure was even stronger than his, and naturally his competitive instincts were aroused.
What he had just witnessed confirmed his earlier suspicion. If his intuition was correct, however, this man could do still more. He wanted to know how far the other’s attainment really extended.
The ground below was covered with dead beasts and rivers of blood, a hellish spectacle.
The beast tide still raged elsewhere, but fewer beasts dared enter this area under the two sword cultivators’ pressure.
Yun Lie, murderous intent wrapped around his body, replied coldly, ‘As you wish.’
Golden light flashed at the center of his brow, and his five fingers suddenly contracted!